Testing my form

[mpritchett]

My website is still in the creation stage but I added a form to it and decided to test it. I submitted the form and received this message:

Either there is no default mail client or the current mail client cannot fulfill the messaging request. Please run Microsoft Outlook and set it as the default mail client.

Does that mean I will have to set up a Microsoft Outlook account once I purchase my domain name? When I created my form I used the mailto: myemail@myemail.com. Please advise. Thanx.

[Andy128]

Re: Testing my form

mpritchett,

This is the very problem with a form set to mailto: - it must use a properly set up mail client on the users end. There is the potential that your clients or future viewers will experience the same thing. For that reason- most opt to create a php mailto form. A php mailto form automatically sends the info from the form to your e-mail once they hit submit. No mus, no fuss!

Click the link below to see my tutorial on how to set it up. It looks a lot more difficult than it really is. Many-many here have set them up. If you run into a snag- post back and we'll give a helping hand. In the tutorial there are also two options you can use. David's ready made forms/scripts and tohave Watdaflip write one for you. You will see what I am talking about in the tutorial.

I have confidence that you can do it though! Give it a try.

http: //www.netisopen.com/computer/TF001/phpmailto.html

Cheers,

Andy

[mpritchett]

Re: Testing my form

Thank you for all your help and advice. I really needed it a lot more. lol

I understand the infomation that you referred me to but I have a few questions. I have 3 forms on my website. One is a free rate analysis form, one is a pre-application, and the last form is an inquiry form. So they are a little more involved than what your example talked about on the website.

When you were talking about adding codes to create other fields (example-@$email = addslashes($_POST['email']);), where should I type it? On the notepad file that I downloaded? Also, if I do type them in Notepad how would I go about loading them to the FTP site?

Is there a way for me to upload a pdf file of my pre-application form to my website? That way, I will only have to create 2 simple forms instead of 3.

[navaldesign]

Re: Testing my form

let's clarify things a liitle.

Your forms will be created in BV. A PDF form can only be used for the visitor to download and manually fill it in, and then fax it to you, not for collecting info online, as it cannot process and send any info. It is simply a static form, as a Word document would be.

You first create the form in BV using the form tools. BV allows absolute freedom in the layout. Then, the info that a visitor fills in, must be collected and sent to you. That's where coding comes on the scene. You must create a script, which will perform the processing of the form info. This script is usually made in php ( a programming languagge) and uploaded on your server . Let's call this script file, i.e. "process.php".
Now we want our form to send the info to this script, so that it can gather and process it.
To accomplish this, in your form page, the one you create in BV, you need to tell the form where to send the info. This is done by setting the form action (in the "Action" field) to be "process.php". So, when one presses "Submit" , the info that he has typed in, is sent to the "process.php" file. At this point, this "process.php" file gathers the info, and sends it in your email inbox.

So:

1. You create the form in Bv. Set the action in "process.php". Set also the encoding type in "multipart / formdata". Save your page and publish it.
2. Create this php script. There are some different approaches on the matter, you can choose one of the two that Andy 128 has implemented in his tutorials. Once you have read them, you will see that it is much easier than it sounds. Andy has step by step instructions on creating the script, as well as on uploading it on your site. Follow them and you're going to be just fine.

If you need further help, just post back.

[mpritchett]

Re: Testing my form

Yes, that's exactly what I want to do with the pdf file that I have. I only want them to download it, print it and then fax it to me. How would I go about adding it to my website?

I understand that this may be easy to you but if you look at that symbol below my name on the forum, it says "private first class". It's doesn't come that easy to me. lol I appreciate your information, it's very helpful but you didn't answer my question. If I wanted to add script to the form, do I do that in Notepad?

[navaldesign]

Re: Testing my form

For your offline PDF form:

Step 1: upload the PDF file on your site, using BlueFTP.
Step 2: create a link in the desired page, to link to the PDF file. The link can be Text, Button, Shape, Image, whatever you want. Then link the object to the PDF file. The link should be: http://www.yoursite.com/filename.pdf (or.PDF, look how it has been uploaded on your site)

For your online forms (the ones that are filled in directly on your site):

I DID answer your question: i directed you to Andy's tutorial. The link is in Andy's signature, in post #2 above. Click there, you will find Andy's tutorial, which STEP BY STEP explains how to create and add the script. And Yes, it involves some writing (but mostly copy / paste from Andy's tutorial) in Notepad. If you had just taken 5 minutes to follow the above instructions, you would have found all the necessary instructions.

[mpritchett]

Re: Testing my form

I salute you. THanx.

I'm good at creating the forms but I have another question.

Let me explain. My site has two forms. One is to request a free rate analysis. So when a customer fills out this form and submits it my message will say:

Thank you for your interest in ______. Your inform has been received. You will need to check your email for further instructions required to complete your rate review.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us toll free @ 800_________. or by email @_________.


My other form is an inquiry form. When submitted the message will say:
Thank you for your submission.


So I will have two different responses once the forms are submitted. My question is, will I need to create two different scripts in notepad to get two different results? If so, will I need to separate them in order for the system to identify the different forms?

[navaldesign]

Re: Testing my form

You can do it with one or two scripts, depending on your experience with php scripting. The obvious way is to have two scripts. But if you use hidden fields in your forms, for the mail subject, the form name, and the thankyou page URL ( or the thankyou message, if you choose not to have a separate thankyou page) you can simply have one script that will work properly with both forms.